How to Select Quotes for an Essay

August 26, 2015

Serving Several Purposes

Using quotes in an essay can serve several purposes. If you are trying to argue a point in your essay, a quote from a respected professional can add authority to your writing. You can also use a quote as an attention getter in your introductory paragraph. Quotes can inspire readers, make them laugh, and make them think. The challenge you will face as a writer is knowing how to select quotes for an essay. For example, where do you find good quotes? How do you determine the best places in your essay for incorporating quotes? How do you format quotes? What we are going to do is go over the definition of a quote and the best ways to use quotes in your essays.

The Definition of a Quote

A quote is simply a direct, word for word repetition of something another person has said. This is also known as a direct quote. When you include a quote in your essay, it should be enclosed in quotation marks, and you should always include an attribution (the name of the person whose quote you are using). Please note that this posting is about the effective use of quotes in an essay, not proper methods of citing sources, etc.

Finding Great Quotes

The internet is a great source of quotes from interesting and successful paper. Websites such as goodreads.com, and brainyquote.com are huge repositories of quotes. You can search these websites by name or topic. However, before you use any quote, you should do a bit more research. Here are a few things you should ask yourself.

Do I know anything about the person I am quoting? After all, you don’t want to quote some horrible person in your essay.

What does this quote really mean? Has it been taken out of context in order to make it appear as if the person meant something completely different? Is there sarcasm or word play that I am not seeing?

Has the quote been attributed to the correct person?

Once you are confident that quote is correct and the person being quoted is beyond reproach, you are ready to think about how you will use the quote in your essay.

Adding Quotes to your Essay: Best Practices

As mentioned above, the introduction to your essay is a great place for a quote. You can also use quotes in the body paragraphs as supporting points. Just be sure the people you are quoting are respected subject matter experts. If you can find one that fits the bill, you can insert a quote in your conclusion paragraph to help you summarize your point.

Getting Additional Assistance with Quotes

If you use quotes effectively, they can really add a lot to your writing. Your essays will be more interesting and your points will be more credible. However, we realize that applying this knowledge can be difficult. If you have a difficult essay assignment and would like to use quotes in your writing, you can place an order for our essay writing services. We will write your essay for you, and we will include quotes according to your instructions.